The new Intel i226-V / i226-LM / i226-IT NICs

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zir_blazer

Active Member
Dec 5, 2016
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I just saw this Thread on Reddit and reminded me of looking around for potential alternatives to the infamous i225 series Intel NICs, albeit for the most part they're unavoidable. Checking the Intel Ark I suddently found that Intel supposedly released a new i226 series in Q2 2022 that seems to supercede the current i225-V / i225-LM / i225-IT, but they're also considered part of the Foxville family just like the i225, which would point out than i226 is a new name for a fourth Revision of the i225. Any info (News announcement, whatever) related to it? It is not the first time that Intel claims to have launched something that doesn't appears for months, like the X710-AT2 / X710-TM4 I once posted about. Does the timeframe seems generous enough to see it included in Raptor Lake Motherboards?
 

glow

New Member
Mar 22, 2022
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I don't have anything useful to add, just that if Intel is still fixing their MAC/PHY problems, then that likely means Raptor Lake chipsets won't have a 2.5GbE MAC integrated yet (or not enabled). This will continue to leave a slight barrier to universal adoption.
 
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zir_blazer

Active Member
Dec 5, 2016
355
128
43
I don't have anything useful to add, just that if Intel is still fixing their MAC/PHY problems, then that likely means Raptor Lake chipsets won't have a 2.5GbE MAC integrated yet (or not enabled). This will continue to leave a slight barrier to universal adoption.
The i225 is NOT a simple PHY for a Chipset MAC like in some previous generations, it is a full, standalone PCIe NIC.
Including a 2.5G MAC on the Raptor Lake Chipsets means than it would need only a PHY, which is a different product from the i225/i226 line, and I'm not sure if Intel has that or would be instead handing out the PHY market to Realtek. Most likely Intel would keep it simple for its Motherboard partners and do something totally pin compatible and similar to Alder Lake platform, so Chipset+i225/i226 seems more reasonable.